Having a character who is clear, open, and positive about her faith was a wonderful experience for me.

Jeremy Wyatt (Astral Era Podcast) joins us this week to discuss faith and queer identity; particularly, how Final Fantasy Tactics allowed him recontextualize his evangelical upbringing and come to terms with his homosexuality. Jeremy talks about his family's struggle with poverty and addiction, as well as time as an outreach worker for at-risk youth. Together we discuss our individual issues with organized religion, and our love of Supergiant's Pyre depiction an uplifting and progressive character of faith.

Also we talk Arizona's regressive politics, queer identity, Westboro Baptist Church, falling asleep in job interviews, friends in the church, secret baptisms, what it means to make your own family, and Robert uses Pastor K as an excuse to rave about Night in the Woods yet again.

Game designer and programmer Raven Mulvany joins Misspent Youth to talk the role Pokémon played as an alternative means of communication in her youth, and how Treasure's Gunstar Super Heroes inspired her to start making her own games. We discuss her numerous projects, including an RPG that teaches Gaelic, and her upcoming Vive game Transition Level which you can play now.

Also: How Christine Love's Digital: A Love Story appeals to us extremely online introverts, why Naughty Dog can only intersperse queer romance with extreme violence, hopes and anxieties for Fallout `76, and the respectful etiquette of Dark Souls online.

We welcome Alva Chua back to discuss representation and performativity within games, and how it relates to her past career as a pro-domme. We also touch on contextualizing trans experience through genre, negotiating empowerment, where the lines in fantasy begin and end, games' terrible track record of portraying BDSM, and we critique VA-11 HALL-A and The Red Strings Club, as well as Waypoint's review of the latter title.

Follow Alva on Twitter @vinomatic, and come to her performance at Tweak #2 in London on Thursday 16 August.

I love researching things and pursuing stuff, which led me into writing about games.

Kusoge aficionado Heidi Kemps (Gaming.moe) joins us this week to talk about her shaky introduction to video games; a one-two punch of having too much empathy for Frogger, and the assumption that the most interesting games were "for boys only." After this belief was challenged by a bizarre Super C commercial, Heidi embarked on a lifelong journey that eventually found her in possession of the only Fighting Vipers 2 cabinet in America.

Also, we talk the vagueness of Phantasy Star II, the inscrutable Presto Studios-developed Gundam FMV game, GIRLZ BUTTZ, Sega loyalty, Raimais' plethora of secrets and the general wonders of Taito, Seiken Densetsu 3, the effortless rebellion of Jet Set Radio, and how multifaceted enjoyment of the medium can make research more enjoyable than play. Be sure to read her deep dive into quiz cabinets.